Author Archives: Melissa A. Venable

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About Melissa A. Venable

Working at the intersection of instructional design and technology, social media, and career development.

Instructional Design and Project Management – Are You Certified?

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The instructional design field is part art – part science (Check out this post on Performance x Design). While you can study Instructional Design as an academic field and complete a degree or certificate program, you can also join the field via on-the-job training. I have worked with people who have come through varying career paths to become talented instructional designers. The work of the instructional designer is application oriented and one becomes more skilled through practice. I think that project managers follow similar paths – some have related degrees while others have learned through the process of managing projects.

Part of the skill set of the instructional designer is project management. The reality of curriculum, education, and training teams in organizations is that the instructional designer often wears both hats. Rarely is there a separate project manager to orchestrate the process of course development and keep things on track and under budget. Having had this experience myself I often refer to myself as a Project Manager, but with the increase in certification in this area I wonder how long I will be able to do that.

Advertisements for Instructional Designer positions almost always include the need for “project management experience”. Recently though I saw an announcement that required project management certification, specifically the Project Management Professional (PMP) designation.

eLearning Pro with PMP…

The Project Management Institute (PMI) offers a globally recognized set of certifications. The two I am most familiar with are the PMP and the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM). The PMP requires an extensive application documenting three years of project management experience, a college degree, and specific coursework in project management. If your application is accepted, you sit for a national exam. Once you pass the exam and are granted the certification, you complete annual continuing education activities. The CAPM also involves an extensive application and exam followed by re-examination every five years.

So, I am considering pursuit of one of these designations. The process is a little daunting and I think to myself, when does it end? When do I have enough acronyms after my name to stay competitive and ensure a potential employer that I am qualified? And there seems to be a fine line there – how many is too many?

Professional certification also seems to be an industry in and of itself. There are application fees, study courses (with fees), test preparation materials to purchase, exam fees… and other costs associated with membership and continuing education. To me, there is a financial investment involved and one that would continue. Do employers assist with these costs or provide additional compensation to those who hold special certifications?

What are your thoughts on professional certification? – particularly where instructional design and project management are concerned. If you have considered pursuing  or have completed certification, please share your advice on the pros and cons. If you are an employer, let us know how you value certification as part of the recruitment/hiring process.

Photo credit: stock.xchng

Course Design – Plan for Evaluation

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Evaluation, like needs assessment, is not always given the attention it requires in the process of instructional design. In real world situations, the timeline often drives the work and is usually too short to fully incorporate everything that should be done.

Creating an Evaluation Plan, as part of the initial design, helps you to make a lot of decisions before getting underway and to integrate evaluation tasks as you move forward with a project.

Your Evaluation Plan should include at a minimum:

  • List of objectives for the evaluation – why are you evaluating the instruction and to whom will the results be reported?
  • Description of the data you need to collect and why – what kind of information do you need to collect in order to find out if the instruction is effective?  This can cover a wide range of measures, including:
    • Content accuracy
    • Learning outcome achievement
    • Usability of delivery format
    • Cost-effectiveness of the project
  • The logistics of how the evaluation will take place – How, when, where, and who will be involved in evaluation? Will you use surveys, administer tests, conduct interviews, etc.?

There are a lot of options in terms of models. You’ll find these to be very comprehensive in most cases. Consider creating a customized plan for your project or work context.

There  are full examples of  evaluation plans available online. Two to review:

What is your experience with evaluation as part of the instructional design process? Please consider sharing your experiences related to priority, timeframe, and method. Is evaluation conducted by members of your design team or by an outside group?

Photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography, Flickr

Top 10 Tools for Learning – 2010

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Once again, Jane Hart is asking all of us to submit our individual top 10 lists so that she can compile and report on the “Top 100 Tools for Learning”, this time the 2010 edition. So, here’s my list (in no particular order) from my perspective as a designer, developer, manager of online courses. These are the tools that I have turned to most often this year to get the work done, and more importantly, to collaborate with others to get the work done. It’s only June, so this might be worth another look a little closer to the end of the year.  

  1. Google Docs – Using these more and more with faculty SMEs to map out course content and with colleagues to write papers and conference proposals.
  2. Twitter – Just marked my first year on Twitter and I am still enjoying it – the constant flow of information and resources. Getting better at curating my list.
  3. Skype – I work remotely and use the Skype Number service as my office phone number. Works well and is very affordable. Also use the instant messaging and conference calls for quick questions with teammates.
  4. Basecamp –  This online project management system allows team members to post and reply to internal messages, work on asynchronous whiteboards, maintain version control of documents… and they are adding new features and capabilities all the time.
  5. Adobe Connect – The features of a synchronous system are not always required, but can’t be beat for sharing screens and walking through a product or document. Adobe Connect’s not my favorite of these systems, but it’s the one I’ve used the most this year. Adobe Connect Now has been great for small meetings (up to 3 people).
  6. WordPress – Still using WordPress for my blog and looking at moving to the self-hosted version.  After attending a WordCamp event I am even more convinced that this is the tool of choice for blogging and that there is potential for use as an LMS/CMS…
  7. Learning Management Systems – A broad category, yes, and still on my list in 2010. I’ve used Sakai, Blackboard, e-College, and dabbled in WebCT and Moodle. The features are similar and provide a framework for delivering a formal course. I realize there is a lot of debate out there about the need for a system like this, but there’s something to be said for the ability to add structure and organization.
  8. Slideshare – A nice tool for sharing presentations that are easy to embed in blog posts, course web pages, etc. with active links. Twice this year I’ve used slideshare to share a presentation before and after synchronous conference sessions. Also easy to add to your LinkedIn profile or VisualCV.
  9. Google Search – I’ve experimented a little with Bing, but Google Search is my favorite search engine and the one I use 99.99% of the time.
  10. Aggregators, all kinds – I add this as another broad category to include tools like TweetDeck, Google Reader, The Twitter Time.es, Meebo, Delicious, Acamedes, etc. Information overload is upon us and I am starting to find these tools more useful all the time to help me sort through information, share information, and manage incoming and outgoing communication with my network.

A bonus: Creative Commons licenses. This isn’t a technology, I suppose, but it is a tool that is helpful in my field. There is a lot of debate currently about open educational resources and how they can be and should be used in different contexts. These licenses at the very least offer us all a way to clearly indicate how we intend our materials to be used.

Did you submit your top 10 list for 2010? How does your list differ from mine?